This is a great, easy-to-read guide to putting together novel length stories. It's not just a how-to, it's also a so-what and why. I think I now have a better understanding of the elements needed to create compelling stories, along with some good tips on how to make it happen.

The specific tool I was looking for was Farland's "story puzzle" device I heard mentioned on a recent episode of the "Writing Excuses" podcast. The way it was mentioned, I thought it might be at the very beginning and the rest of the book would just add depth. Farland knew better. He spends the first third of the book helping the reader understand how stories work, the next third sifting through the pieces needed to create a good story, and the last third offering some tools to make it happen. But still no "story puzzle".

Finally, there in the appendix "Exercises To Increase Productivity" it looks like I've found the story puzzle exercise and I will try to use it on my next book. ( )

I'm well aware of the irony in my writing a review of a book about outlining. Or even reading one, for that matter, since I'm pretty much an inveterate "discovery" writer (aka "pantser"). I bought a copy of this ebook to help out when the author's son was in an accident, and I wanted to contribute to their medical costs, the state of such things for writers being generally terrible south of the border. It took me quite a while to read it because I had it on my smartphone, and read it generally in short bursts while waiting in lines and offices.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that even for a non-outliner like me, this book has some solid advice to impart. As well as dealing with the nitty-gritty of novel outlining, Farland has a lot of good points to make about evaluating the character relationships in your fledgling novel, incorporating emotional "beats", and finding ways to improve every scene. The writing is smooth and friendly, and uses many real-world examples to illustrate points. For both aspiring and intermediate authors, I highly recommend it even if you're not a fan of outlines; you'll likely find advice inside to help you take your writing up a notch. ( )

This book inevitably covered some of the same ground as "Techniques of the Selling Writer," but was worth reading especially for its insights into Hollywood and the idea of plotting emotional beats, and how to classify stories by the dominant emotions the evoke, rather than by traditional ideas of genre. ( )

Love the audience analysis breakdown, but didn't offer much tips on how to actually outline. ( )

If you are a screen writer, than perhaps you will find some value here. If you are a writer, a first time youth who has not had any seasoning, than you might find some of what a screen writer would think useful, and if you have done any work as a writer, more than a couple books, Mr. Farland has little of use for you.

The entire end of the book is how Raiders of the Lost Art was crafted. A movie. More than 9 out of 10 times the man cites movies as examples, not books. We know he is quite well aware of the difference between the mediums but he thinks it simpler to illustrate with the use of movies since he preaches to an audience that must be illiterate by its nature.

The meat of his discussion is less than an eighth of the book devoted to creating the outline, the rest being how to craft your story in the way those in Hollywood like to tell stories. Ideas of how scenes, themes are strung together are from the movies and how visual storytelling works. Certainly that must be the only way we can craft our tales these days. Or perhaps that is the only way you will get paid a million dollars for an outline, selling it to Hollywood.

Farland as a writer lost me in his series that didn't reach a conclusion, and here now, I find his advice only able to appeal to a small subset of those in pursuit of the craft and talented with the art of a writer. ( )